Honorable Mentions

ENTRY: MANYA
NAME: Amy SobotaSCHOOL: UW-Madison

"Manya" was the childhood nickname of Marie Sklodowska-Curie;
a woman who did more than anyone to deepen our fundamental
understanding of x-rays. For her work in purifying radioactive
elements, and discovering and quantifying Radium and Polonium
(which she chose to name after her native Poland), Marie Curie
was awarded the Nobel Prize for both Physics (in 1903) and
Chemistry (in 1911)--the first woman to win a Nobel prize, and
the first person to ever win two. The purpose of AXAF is to
"collect, observe and analyze x-rays", which is precisely the
goal towards which Marie Curie unstintingly worked. This
satellite represents enormous progress from the days in which
Marie Curie sifted through loads of pitchblende ore to isolate a
tiny sample of pure Radium. And yet were she alive today she
would see AXAF as a logical extension of the work she pioneered.
In addition to her many academic distinctions, Marie Curie was
a dedicated humanitarian, eager to establish therapeutic uses
for her newly discovered "radiation". She was also a member
of the International Commission on Intellectual Co-operation.
How fitting then, that a nickname reminiscent of her beloved
homeland should be given to a satellite whose purpose is to
expand our understanding of x-rays beyond what Marie Curie could
ever have dreamed possible--and whose newfound knowledge will be
shared with scientists around the world.